Back in mid-July the entire state of Minnesota d.o.c. prison system was locked down because an officer was killed in the prison I reside in. First off, my condolences go out to the family an friends of this man, ofc Gomm. No one deserves to be murdered, I don’t care who you are. Secondly, I understand locking the prisons down for a day or three for security but omg this prison, stillwater, has been on lockdown for almost two months now. We weren’t allowed to shower for over a week the first time and the second. Now, for the last couple of weeks we have been getting a little time out of our cells. Sadly we are still on modified lockdown and the man who committed the crime causing the lockdown is in an entirely different prison ( for his safety ) and that prisons not even on lockdown. So the big question is why are we being treated as if we committed this troubling crime and suffering the consequences? Idk… I have had my share of pained days, but I refuse to lash out at the staff whom work here and are in mourning ( so to speak ). I am just very disheartened that the extreme injury or death of a person serving time ( inmate, convict, felon, etc ) is grounds for maybe an hour or two lockdown of the individual prison said incident happens in, and that only because they need to get the ambulance in or coroner. Yet the death of this one man causes such an uproar that to do this day the d.o.c. union for c.o.s is still on the news petitioning everyone to stand behind them in fighting for more funds from the legislature to have more security and better benefits for them. What about the safety of us whom have to live here 24/7? That never seems to take the front seat. We deserve our due punishment, not mistreatment and guilt by assosiation just because we both have offender identification numbers. Please keep the guys living in Stillwater prison in your prayers? It is hell here right now.
Chris Peterson
DOC #211648
The world has known war forever.
Men have gone to war for the least reasons
And sometimes for the most.
It might have been for a woman
As was Helen of Troy.
It might have been for the crops
Or the livestock that was kept
It might have been because one person
hated the other
And it might have been
for no real reason.
We may never know.
But one thing is sure.
The world has known war forever.
Thank you for your good writing.